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A Holistic Take on GLP-1s for Weight Management | Nat Niddam (Encore)
Struggling to lose weight despite a healthy lifestyle? In this episode, holistic nutritionist Nat Niddam joins us to uncover the science and strategy behind GLP-1 weight-loss peptides. We explore their transformative potential—not just for weight loss, but for enhancing insulin sensitivity, reducing inflammation, and curbing emotional eating. Nat shares expert tips for avoiding muscle loss, navigating metabolic plateaus, and using GLP-1s as part of a holistic health plan. Whether you're navigating menopause, managing PCOS, or looking for sustainable weight loss solutions, this conversation is packed with essential advice for achieving your optimal body composition.
🔑 KEY TOPICS 🔑
-The role of GLP-1 peptides in managing weight loss resistance and enhancing insulin sensitivity.
-Why muscle loss is a concern when using GLP-1s—and how to prevent it with nutrition and resistance training.
-The importance of a holistic approach: addressing hormone imbalances, gut health, and nutrient deficiencies.
-Practical ways to reset your body’s weight set point and achieve long-lasting results.
-Complementary peptides and supplements to support your body during GLP-1 use.
-Strategies for managing common side effects like constipation and reflux.
🕐 TIMESTAMPS 🕐
[00:00] Introduction & Overview of GLP-1s for Weight Loss
[02:51] Nat Niddam’s Approach to Holistic Nutrition & Peptide Therapy
[05:00] Common Mistakes When Using GLP-1s
[08:55] Why Testing Is Crucial Before Starting Peptides
[12:30] The Importance of Protein Intake for Preserving Muscle
[15:45] Resistance Training & Preventing Sarcopenia
[19:25] How GLP-1s Impact Appetite and Food Cravings
[21:40] Addressing Common Side Effects: Reflux and Constipation
[24:24] Supporting the Liver, Thyroid, and Adrenals During Peptide Use
[28:29] Nat’s Personal GLP-1 Journey and Lessons Learned
[36:00] Overcoming Metabolic Plateaus
[38:40] Complementary Peptides: BPC-157, CJC-1295, and More
[43:10] Next-Generation Weight Loss Peptides and Future Innovations
[48:30] The Role of Digestive Health in Weight Loss Success
[52:27] Measuring Progress Beyond the Scale: Body Composition Insights
[54:09] Nat’s Top Three Tips for Living an Optimized Life
🎙️ GUEST 🎙️
Guest: Nat Niddam
Website: https://www.natniddam.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nathalieniddam
🌐 LET'S CONNECT 🌐
Host: Orshi McNaughton
Website: https://www.optimizedwomen.com/
Podcast Links: https://optimized-women.captivate.fm/listen
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@optimizedwomen
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/optimizedwomen
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Transcript
This is a big question out in the world right now is should we wait for people to be obese and type 2 diabetic before we take action?
Speaker A:And I think that obviously, no, right.
Speaker A:People should be dialing in their diet and their exercise and their lifestyle and all the things.
Speaker A:But I think that where the JLP1s really shine is that they can be used properly at lower dose very often to help people become unstuck.
Speaker A:And, and I think that part of the backlash in the world about GLP1s is that they're being seen as a quick fix solution.
Speaker A:So people are like, oh, no problem, I've put on a few pounds, I'm just gonna hop on a GLP1.
Speaker A:We're not talking about morbidly obese people here.
Speaker A:We're not talking about people who are.
Speaker A:Have crazy high blood sugar, who have type 2 diabetes.
Speaker A:Like, that's an obvious audience.
Speaker A:But this audience that you're speaking with who are somewhere around menopause for the most part, whether they're pre peri or post menopause, and even younger women who have pcos, for example.
Speaker A:So these are women who are stuck, right?
Speaker A:They can eat less and exercise more till the cows come home.
Speaker A:Nothing's coming off.
Speaker A:The body has taken a position that it is not releasing any of this extra fluff because as far as it's concerned, in its primitive little way of looking things, this is insurance against ravaging hoards.
Speaker B:Welcome to the Optimized Woman, the podcast for high performing women ready to take back their health.
Speaker B:Hi, I'm Orshi McNaughton, a board certified holistic health practitioner and functional nutritionist.
Speaker B:If you're tired of feeling stuck, you can't lose the weight.
Speaker B:No matter what you do.
Speaker B:Your energy is in the toilet, your metabolism feels like it's at a standstill, and you lost the spark you once had.
Speaker B:Then you're in the right place.
Speaker B:We are here to unleash the unstoppable force you're meant to be and give you the tools to fix what's holding you back.
Speaker B:So if you're ready to own it, start thriving again and live the life you deserve.
Speaker B:And let's get to it.
Speaker B:Welcome, friends.
Speaker B:Today I'm thrilled to be joined by Natalie Nidham, a holistic nutritionist and a host of the Longevity podcast.
Speaker B:In this episode, we discuss GLP1 weight loss peptides and how they are revolutionizing weight management even for those who aren't diabetic.
Speaker B:We explore surprising benefits like their ability to curb emotional eating and cravings.
Speaker B:As well as important risks, including muscle loss and practical strategies to avoid it.
Speaker B:We also explore how these peptides can have wide ranging health benefits by targeting the root causes of metabolic dysfunction, enhancing insulin sensitivity and reducing systemic inflammation.
Speaker B:This is a conversation that will challenge what you think you know about GLP1s and inspire a fresh perspective on achieving a balanced, holistic approach to weight loss.
Speaker B:Let's dive in.
Speaker A:This is a big question out in the world right now is should we wait for people to be obese and type 2 diabetic before we take action?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And I think that obviously no, right.
Speaker A:People should be dialing in their diet and their exercise and their lifestyle and all the things.
Speaker A:But I think that where the GLP1s really shine is that they can be used properly at low do at lower dose very often to help people become unstuck.
Speaker A:And I think that part of the backlash in the world about GLP1s is that they're being seen as a quick fix solution.
Speaker A:So people are like, oh, no problem, I've put on a few pounds, I'm just going to hop on a GLP1.
Speaker A:And then once I'm there, I'm just going to, well, maybe I'm going to, you know, maybe I need to lose five insurance pounds.
Speaker A:And, and maybe people are overusing them, they're using them at too high a dose because they're in a rush, they stay on them too long.
Speaker A:And most importantly, I think that the biggest mistake that people make with the GLP1s is that they don't use them properly.
Speaker A:So what does properly mean?
Speaker A:And it's, and I would say that this especially goes to the audience that you're speaking to.
Speaker A:So as you said, this is an audience that we're not talking about morbidly obese people here.
Speaker A:We're not talking about people who are, have crazy high blood sugar who have type 2 diabetes.
Speaker A:Like, that's an obvious audience.
Speaker A:But this audience that you're speaking with, who are mostly, I'm going to guess, predominantly women and probably somewhere around menopause for the most part, whether they're pre peri or post menopause and even, even a bit younger, like women, younger women who have pcos, for example.
Speaker A:So these are women who are stuck, right?
Speaker A:They can eat less and exercise more until the cows come home.
Speaker A:Nothing's coming off.
Speaker A:The body has taken a position that it is not releasing any of this extra fluff because as far as it's concerned, in its primitive little way of looking things, this is insurance against ravaging hordes or whatever.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So should these women just run to the nearest wherever, get their hands on whatever GLP1 they can get their hands on, and go at it?
Speaker A:I don't think the answer is that simple.
Speaker A:I think that it's a good idea to do the work with your physician to begin with.
Speaker A:Understand, are your hormones balanced?
Speaker A:Do you have a cortisol issue?
Speaker A:Is insulin sensitivity an issue, resistance an issue for you?
Speaker A:You need to get data.
Speaker A:You need to understand why are you stuck where you are.
Speaker A:And from there, you can make a plan.
Speaker A:I think just using the GLP ones as the one hammer for the one nail is not wise, because if your hormones are out of whack, example, even though the GLP ones may force the fat loss, you haven't solved the problem.
Speaker A:And we need to solve, we need to address the issues that are driving the problem.
Speaker A:And hormonal imbalances is going to be a huge one.
Speaker A:The one that I think is a little, maybe a little muddier is when you're talking about someone who's yo yo dieted their entire life, and their metabolism at this point is a hot mess.
Speaker A:And I think a lot of people know that yo yo dieting is not good for you, but a lot of people don't fully understand what that means.
Speaker A:And the best way to.
Speaker A:To explain it or the best way to articulate this to people is think about the fact that what, however it is that you used to, whatever you used to do to drop that extra 10 pounds or 5 pounds or 15 pounds, maybe you did it in your 20s, then maybe you did in your 30s, and then all of a sudden that didn't work anymore, so now you had to do something else, and then that didn't work anymore, so now you have to do something else.
Speaker A:And what happens is that the body gets smart.
Speaker A:The body is smart.
Speaker A:And if all you're trying to do is circumvent some strategy that the body has developed to protect itself, your body's smarter than you are, and it's going to develop a counter attack which will thwart your best efforts.
Speaker A:And our metabolism, if we spend decades gaining and losing and gaining and losing and gaining and losing, you're doing a lot of damage metabolically and even to the tissue.
Speaker A:So one of the people that speaks to this really, really well, you might want to have him on the podcast someday.
Speaker A:His name is Joel Green, and he's written a couple of really good books in the space.
Speaker A:And he, his first book was called.
Speaker A:Is called the Immunity Code.
Speaker A:And he goes at body composition from the angle of the immune system.
Speaker A:How does the immune system perceive fat loss?
Speaker A:And he makes some really fascinating points.
Speaker A:And then his next book is the Way, which is more.
Speaker A:It's a much easier book to follow.
Speaker A:So if you guys want to look into Joel's work and you're looking for a plan, go for the Way.
Speaker A:The Immunity Code is a fantastic book, but it's not going to be your ABC here's what you do primer kind of thing.
Speaker A:So going back to the GL and Joel himself talks a lot about stimulating GLP1 naturally in your gut.
Speaker A:And you can do that by supporting the microbiome by feeding Akkermansia.
Speaker A:But before you feed Akkermansia, you need to make sure and bifidobacteria you need to have an understanding of do you have a deficiency of Akkermansia or is it possible that you have an overgrowth of Akkermansia?
Speaker A:And everybody is all obsessed about more Akkermansia, which is a gut bug.
Speaker A:But the fact of the matter is that having an overgrowth of Akkermansia can drive inflammation in the gut lining.
Speaker A:Because they're going to, they're now they're going to, they're hungry little buggers and they're going to go at the mucin layer that protects the gut lining.
Speaker A:I think that none of this stuff is black and white.
Speaker A:There's no good and bad, there's no yes, you should, no you shouldn't.
Speaker A:There's context and you need to understand what is your, the context of your situation if you are truly stuck, right?
Speaker A:If you've tried, you've cleaned up your diet, you've paid some attention to what the energy you're bringing on and the energy you're expending, you've be honest with yourself.
Speaker A:Are you working out?
Speaker A:Are you snacking from the jelly bean bowl or the cookie bowl or the peanut bowl or whatever bowl it is that's out in your house or your office?
Speaker A:Are you snacking every time you walk by that thing?
Speaker A:Before you jump on the GLP1s, see if you can go at the low hanging fruit and give it 30 days.
Speaker A:So if going at the low hanging fruit, dialing in the exercise and we can talk about what that means also if dialing in the exercise, getting some time outside managing your stress, dialing in your sleep, cleaning up your diet.
Speaker A:And I don't mean dieting, I just mean get rid of the crap, eat three meals a day, try to avoid snacking.
Speaker A:Really super basic stuff.
Speaker A:If doing Stuff like that doesn't give you any results and your body is really, really stuck.
Speaker A:So now maybe the time and you've looked at the hormones, you've had your hormones assessed, you've kind done that foundational work and you're truly stuck.
Speaker A:It like the GLP ones are a beautiful thing.
Speaker A:Like they've been transformative for so many people and have really given them their lives back in a big way.
Speaker A:But anyway, so that's the preamble.
Speaker A:Maybe you have some question.
Speaker A:I don't want to just keep talking because then it's.
Speaker A:Then it's Nat's monologue and really wants to hear that.
Speaker B:I think the point that I want to drill down a little bit further that you pointed out that when people start, let's just say these are people that are already working on their nutrition and fitness and stress management and they are stuck.
Speaker B:But instead of running to the nearest website with the compounding pharmacy that can just give you a prescription and start taking that and having this sort of one lever approach that you mentioned.
Speaker B:I think the testing is so incredibly important because like it's very easy to get a prescription and go to one of these compounding pharmacies and you are off to go with your semi glutide or tirzepatide.
Speaker B:But the problem is that if you don't do the testing because they don't require you to do hardly anything to get approved and you don't get any coaching, you just get the drugs and you're on your own.
Speaker B:Basically.
Speaker B:If you don't know like where was my fasting insulin or my A1C or my blood sugar or where were my hormone levels or my thyroid markers before I started?
Speaker B:I think that's a really important piece of information to have a baseline of where am I starting, what is my metabolic health look like before I jump into using GLP1s and then also monitoring regularly and I'm not sure what the frequency that you use with your clients, but I think it's good to do labs depending on how intensely people are working on it, every six weeks or every eight weeks of really seeing how your biomarkers are changing and what direction they are going.
Speaker B:What's your take on, first of all, do you, what type of testing do you do before you start people?
Speaker B:And so what does your process look like?
Speaker A:So I don't actually have any clients right now, so I'm not doing a lot of one on one work at the moment.
Speaker A:I don't have the room for it at the space for It I do have a group that I coach in my membership community and we encourage them to start with getting, actually we encourage them to be working with a physician or a naturopath, someone to, to help to monitor their blood markers.
Speaker A:And to your point, the thyroid gland can take a hit.
Speaker A:The thyroid gland may already be on its knees, right?
Speaker A:Your adrenals may already be on their knees.
Speaker A:And so we have to know that if we are going to.
Speaker A:And if it doesn't mean you can't use a GLP one, it just means that you have to know that going in so that you can support the HPA axis, right?
Speaker A:You can support the adrenals and the thyroid and the brain to, so that they're not just getting tapped out even further to the point where they collapse.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And so part of that is going to be making sure that you're eating a nutrient dense diet.
Speaker A:And nutrient density is a concept that when North America is not very well put into practice, right?
Speaker A:And unfortunately, the tendency in North America is to eat a very energy rich and nutrient poor diet.
Speaker A:And so that means in very simplistic terms, there's a ton of calories and very few micronutrients.
Speaker A:And I mean, you get your macros, obviously your fats, carbs and proteins, but you're not getting what your body really needs to be nourished.
Speaker A:Conversely, you could be eating a diet that is much lower in energy but very, very high in micronutrients.
Speaker A:And there's a lot to be said for that because those micronutrients is what's going to provide your body with the signals and the materials it needs to keep you healthy.
Speaker A:Number two is protein.
Speaker A:Protein is wildly expensive, wildly important when you're on a, when you're using the GLP1s, and that's because when the body is low on calories, so it's low on energy, one of the easiest things for it to get rid of is expensive tissue.
Speaker A:It's not going to get rid of your brain because you need that.
Speaker A:And it's not going to get rid of your heart because you really need that.
Speaker A:But skeletal muscle is super expensive and it will go after that skeletal muscle, unless you are doing what it takes to send the signal to the body that no, no, no, we need this around.
Speaker A:And there's only one way to do that and that's to exercise.
Speaker A:And ideally what you want to be doing is lifting heavy weights once or twice a week instead of just doing cardio all the time.
Speaker A:So people might be sitting there going, well, why Cardio burns more calories.
Speaker A:Why can't I just do cardio?
Speaker A:Well, because cardio, it's the very nature of cardio.
Speaker A:And is that particularly when people are like, let's say they're runners and they're doing a lot of long duration, cardio is, cardio by its nature is catabolic.
Speaker A:And what that means is you're breaking down muscle.
Speaker A:If you look at all the distance runners out there, they're skinny as rails.
Speaker A:These are not.
Speaker A:As a matter of fact, they don't even look that healthy to begin with.
Speaker A:Some of them are.
Speaker A:I mean, it's what they do and it's the body type you need to develop to do long distance running.
Speaker A:But for most of us, it's not practical and it doesn't serve us.
Speaker A:And particularly as women, as we age, we are much higher.
Speaker A:Well, we know that we lose muscle, it's called sarcopenia.
Speaker A:And our bones start to melt partially because of hormonal changes and in many cases simply because we're not active enough.
Speaker A:And that's osteopenia that can eventually develop into osteoporosis.
Speaker A:So we have to prioritize protein, we have got to exercise, we need to lift heavy things and you don't have to do it every single day, just once or twice a week.
Speaker A:And I would say it's not the kind of heavy lifting you can probably do by yourself at the gym because you're never going to push yourself that hard.
Speaker A:So if you can't, if you can find a trainer who understands these concepts, preferably not a 21 year old at the gym who did a weekend course last week and is now personal trainer, but like a real trainer who really gets it.
Speaker A:Or you can look for a place like Osteostrong who have a whole.
Speaker A:The.
Speaker A:Their entire premise was built on the founder's desire to help his mother fix her osteoporosis.
Speaker A:And he did and it fixed my mother's osteoporosis.
Speaker A:It is dramatic how tiny little people who haven't lifted weights ever before in their lives can suddenly be pushing crazy heavy weights on these machines.
Speaker A:And just that signal is enough to signal the body to make bone, right?
Speaker A:Just to produce bone and to produce good quality bone.
Speaker A:If we're going to use GLP1s, this is your invitation to step through the door and really do the work.
Speaker A:So that means you're going to take this opportunity to look at your diet and work with a professional who can help you to develop a nutrient dense protein forward diet that is appropriate for you, doesn't have to be steak.
Speaker A:It can be fish, it can be chicken.
Speaker A:I would do some steak personally, just because red meat has some particular attributes that are really, really help.
Speaker A:And then you can eat as many vegetables that grow above ground as your heart desires.
Speaker A:And that's where you're going to get your nutrient density as well.
Speaker A:If you can get organs into your diet, amazing.
Speaker A:If the thought of eating liver makes you gag, then there's some really great companies out there that make really powerful organ supplements that are basically dried, desiccated organs that have been ground up and put into capsules.
Speaker A:If you do that, that's Mother Nature's multivitamin, right.
Speaker A:And it's giving you a lot of vitamins and minerals in the form that your body recognizes as food.
Speaker A:And so therefore it's very easy for the body to assimilate it.
Speaker A:Because hunger is an issue when we're using GLP1, so people very often aren't hungry.
Speaker A:So this is where we look to things like essential amino acids.
Speaker A:There's some really great formulas out there that can support the muscle gains and repair.
Speaker A:We're looking to a really good greens powder.
Speaker A:We're looking to a great reds powder.
Speaker A:We may need to use some fiber, particularly if you're using semicolon glutide.
Speaker A:You have to.
Speaker A:Yeah, semiglutide.
Speaker A:You have to be very careful with constipation, which can be a major issue.
Speaker A:So you need fiber, you need hydration, you need healthy fats.
Speaker A:Like, you need all the things.
Speaker A:So when you're using the GLP1 and the food noise is kind of shut down and the cravings are calmer, if not completely gone, this is your opportunity to this.
Speaker A:When I do work with people, I tell them, this is your opportunity to recalibrate your taste buds, to relearn what real natural food tastes like and learn to enjoy it again.
Speaker A:This is your opportunity to develop that fitness routine.
Speaker A:Because now you'll be losing some weight, you'll be more willing and able to move your inflammation.
Speaker A:In many, most cases, inflammation drops so pain goes down, so people, again are more incentivized to move.
Speaker A:For some people who've been carrying around a bunch of extra weight for years and years, it's like getting out of jail, right?
Speaker A:Like all of a sudden you have your body back.
Speaker A:And then the other thing to really think about is that one of the mechanisms of action of GLP1s is that they improve insulin sensitivity at skeletal muscle.
Speaker A:And what that means in just plain old English, it means that it Makes it easier for your muscles to grab glucose out of the bloodstream and store it as glycogen, which means in real English, it makes it easier for you to exercise.
Speaker A:It just brings more energy into those muscles so that you can exercise.
Speaker A:So this whole idea that using GLP1s is bad for muscle is completely, it's completely out of context and it's completely false because there's pathways built in.
Speaker B:It's bad for muscle if you are not eating enough protein and not taking your amino acid supplements and you're creating, not exercising, exactly all the things you describe, how you preserve muscle, which is so key when you're in a calorie deficit.
Speaker B:So thank you for highlighting that.
Speaker B:Can you just maybe go just a little bit deeper into how GLP1s actually work of slowing gastric emptying?
Speaker B:And what is the mechanism in action?
Speaker B:Because you started to go in to describing the effect on muscle, but how does it work and how is it actually helping us to lose weight?
Speaker A:So the first thing it does is it raises your resting metabolic rate.
Speaker A:So you're think of it as your engine is burning a little hotter, so you're burning more calories at rest.
Speaker A:Which is why so many people get into trouble, right?
Speaker A:They figure out, oh, I don't actually have to do that much.
Speaker A:I can just sit here and I can eat donuts.
Speaker A:I'm not going to eat as many as I used to because I'm not that hungry and I'm still going to lose weight.
Speaker A:The bad news is you're going to lose weight and you're going to look really bad.
Speaker A:So don't do that.
Speaker A:So that's number one.
Speaker A:It increases the resting metabolic rate.
Speaker A:The other thing that it does is that it acts on the brain center, the food reward brain center.
Speaker A:And that's a really interesting effect because it basically people will say, I just don't care about food that much.
Speaker A:I don't, you know, whereas I never used to be able to resist the cookie jar or I never used to be able to resist food, abc, whatever that may be for you, all of a sudden I just, I don't, I can say no.
Speaker A:It's so weird.
Speaker A:It's so not like me.
Speaker A:I don't need to eat as badly.
Speaker A:The food noise, they, they talk about food noise is down.
Speaker A:I'm not always thinking about food.
Speaker A:And that's because the GLP one actually has an effect on that food reward system in the brain.
Speaker A:And it's the reason why it's being investigated for controlling addiction, because it's that same center.
Speaker A:So that's number two.
Speaker A:Number three, you mentioned slowing gastric emptying.
Speaker A:Now, this is where things start to get a little gray, right?
Speaker A:Because on the one hand, by making, by slowing down how fast your stomach moves food out into the digestive system, which is a natural process of digestion and is supposed to happen, but by slowing that down, it means that you get fuller faster, basically.
Speaker A:Think of it this way.
Speaker A:It's like you have a colon, yeah.
Speaker A:You have one of those funnels, but the exit out of the funnel is really tiny, so you can't just pour a bunch of stuff in there.
Speaker A:Whereas when you're not on a GLP1 without it overflowing, when you're not on GLP1, the bottom of the funnel is huge.
Speaker A:So you can just keep pouring stuff in there and it just keeps moving out.
Speaker A:Basically, the food's sitting in the stomach, and the food is sitting in the stomach longer.
Speaker A:And this brings us to the second side effect that many people, that some people do complain about, and that is gerd or heartburn.
Speaker A:So because the food is sitting in the stomach longer, it just sits and ferments.
Speaker A:And sometimes it, especially if people are not producing enough stomach acid, which most of us aren't, that you now get reflux because it ferments and it boil, boil, toil and trouble.
Speaker A:And you're going to get that reflux so that.
Speaker A:That there are some people literally get it so bad that they cannot use the GLP1s in many cases.
Speaker A:What a lot of practitioners will do, a lot of medical doctors will do, is they will suggest that people use digestive enzymes with the GLP1, and that kind of helps to assist the breakdown of the food.
Speaker B:And it can also be a dosing issue, right, that they are probably overdosed.
Speaker B:And it could also maybe be having them switch from semiglutide, which appetite, which.
Speaker A:Is, of course, there's dosing is always.
Speaker A:And I would say that using.
Speaker A:And my, my theory on this is the same as it is on pretty much everything else other than an antibiotic.
Speaker A:If you happen to need an antibiotic.
Speaker A:If you need an antibiotic, you got to use the right dose at the right time, suck it up, you'll rebuild the gut on the other side if you really need it.
Speaker A:With the GLP1s, you want to start as low as possible, and you want to build the dose slowly.
Speaker A:And as soon as you see the weight start to move, this is your dose.
Speaker A:Resist the temptation to say, I only like I've had people call me and say, well, I only lost £4 last month.
Speaker A:Like, my friend lost 15.
Speaker A:And I'm like, well, number one, £4 is nothing to sneeze at.
Speaker A:And that's going to be the case, especially the less weight you have to lose, the slower it's going to go.
Speaker A:And your friend who lost 15 may have had £100 to lose.
Speaker A:And the body very often in those cases will respond quite dramatically and they're losing inflammation initially.
Speaker A:So don't try your best not to compare to other people.
Speaker A:Respect your own journey and don't overdose.
Speaker A:Because I've seen people who up the dose, up the dose, up the dose, and all of a sudden it reverses on them and they hit a wall.
Speaker A:Never mind a plateau, they just hit a wall.
Speaker B:One more thing I wanted to mention is that a lot of people also have GI issues before they even start on the GLP1.
Speaker B:So they already on a proton pump inhibitor, let's just say, right, they already having digestive issues and then they get on the GLP ones.
Speaker B:Well, of course they can have acid reflux and other issues because the foundational health is not addressed.
Speaker B:And I think to your point that you made earlier, we need to really look at the body holistically, with all the different systems need to be optimized, because this is just one lever that could be a very powerful lever, but by itself, if you pull too hard on this lever, it can actually backfire on other systems in the body for sure.
Speaker A:And so while we're in the stomach here, you have issues of gastritis, you have issues with pancreatitis and all.
Speaker A:And whenever you hear an itis at the end of something, it's inflammation, it's painful, and it's not a good thing.
Speaker A:So if people have a history of pancreatitis or if they have a history of pancreatic cancer in the family, probably it's not going to be the best choice for you.
Speaker A:And it's the kind of thing you really need to sit down and consider with your doctor.
Speaker A:Gastritis is the same, so that's an irritation of the stomach lining.
Speaker A:You just, you really need to sit down with your provider at that point and really think about is, is there a risk of reigniting this or.
Speaker A:And sometimes it just happens, it hits people right out of the blue.
Speaker A:So it can happen.
Speaker A:There's Mother Nature.
Speaker A:There's never really a free lunch.
Speaker A:This one, this is a pretty cheap lunch for a lot of people, but there's never a free, free lunch anyway.
Speaker A:So going back to all the different mechanisms of action.
Speaker A:So we talked about the slow gastric emptying, we talked about the brain center, we talked about increasing the resting metabolic rate, and we talked about improving insulin sensitivity.
Speaker A:And that's a big one, right?
Speaker A:And the cool thing about improving insulin sensitivity is that's a systemic effect.
Speaker A:So that's going to happen all over the body.
Speaker A:So that is going to be helpful to your brain, it's going to be helpful to your heart, it's going to be helpful to all the parts.
Speaker A:And also if we start losing weight, then our blood pressure, if our blood pressure is elevated and is related to excess weight, our blood pressure is going to come down.
Speaker A:And if we start losing weight and we snore at night and we sleep really badly because we have too much extra weight and our weight comes down, we might stop snoring, which means we might sleep better, which means that our hormones will be more balanced, which means we have an easier time losing weight.
Speaker A:So you can see how the cascading effects, the cascading benefits of what the GLP1s are doing for people really can build up very fast.
Speaker A:And so there's a reason why they've been seen as such a dramatic tool for improving human health.
Speaker A:And I just think it's a question of being mindful about your situation, knowing what, what condition your body is in and understanding that you want to also do the work so that you're not relegated to a lifetime of depending on these things.
Speaker B:I think the systemic effects really need to be highlighted because when you improve the insulin sensitivity and reduce the inflammation in the body, it really affects almost the every system and improves every system in the body.
Speaker B:Your cardiovascular health, your blood pressure, your cholesterol levels will go down, your liver health, your kidney health, potential reduction of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's risk, even your microbiome modulation can be a positive thing, obviously, if you don't have all the other GI issues going on.
Speaker B:And then also what you mentioned about the improved impulse control and reduction of like addictive behaviors and also improvement in mood and reduction of anxiety.
Speaker B:It's something that when I was doing my, my trial of GLP1s, I considered myself somebody who had a lot of impulse control, very disciplined.
Speaker B:And I'm a biohacker.
Speaker B:I'm somebody who've done a lot of fasting.
Speaker B:I really don't have a lot of food noise yet.
Speaker B:I was so surprised being on GLP1s.
Speaker B:That benefit was tremendous for me of just having I and I would describe it to people like before I was on GLP1s, I would always have to consciously say no to dessert or I have to be very conscious and disciplined about saying no to certain things.
Speaker B:I know that were.
Speaker B:They were not good for me.
Speaker B:It took an effort to do that.
Speaker B:Whereas being on the GLP1 it was effortless.
Speaker B:Like, it was just easy.
Speaker B:And it allowed me to.
Speaker B:Took all the focus and mental sort of strength that I have and applied towards other things like working out and towards other parts of my life, because we can exhaust that.
Speaker B:We only have so much willpower in a day.
Speaker B:And whether you use it on declining dessert or putting it towards your work or your passion, you can utilize it very differently.
Speaker B:So it almost frees up your system to put that energy into something else.
Speaker B:Did you have the same experience, Natalie?
Speaker A:Yeah, I use GLP1s.
Speaker A:I think I really used them about.
Speaker A:I want to say it was about three years ago, and I had care.
Speaker A:I had put on.
Speaker A:I think I was carrying an extra £14 just for menopause.
Speaker A:Just I turned the corner on menopause.
Speaker A:I'd put on that ten pounds and now I had a couple of extra pounds that had jumped on the bandwagon, as it were being me.
Speaker A:And I tried a lot of things and I, you know, I'm a biohacker, like all the people.
Speaker A:And my women's body was like, yeah, that's really too bad, you know, kind of sucks to be you, because we're just stuck here.
Speaker A:And so I, at the time, semaglutide was the only option available to me.
Speaker A:And I would say that the first month nothing happened, and the second month I thought nothing was happening.
Speaker A:And all of a sudden my clothes started to just get loose.
Speaker A:And at the time, I had started at the 0.25, you know, the minimum, minimum dose.
Speaker A:Then I moved up after a month to.
Speaker A:I doubled that still way below what the studies looked at and called it the effective dose.
Speaker A:And I think that at the.
Speaker A:It took about nine months.
Speaker A:And I spent of that nine months, I spent maybe a month at a little bit higher than the dose next to the starting dose.
Speaker A:I had dropped 14 pounds without even thinking about it.
Speaker A:And it was amazing, right?
Speaker A:Like, I remember running into somebody who said, wow, like, you look 10 years younger.
Speaker A:And so I know that all the people are running around like chickens going ozempic faces, which is, you know, obviously this crazy thing where people lose a lot of weight in their face.
Speaker A:And I want to say about that two things.
Speaker A:Number one, where you drop your weight has a lot to do with your hormones and a lot to do with your genetics.
Speaker A:Number two, if you go over the line and you don't nourish your body and you don't eat your protein and you just keep going and going and going, guess what?
Speaker A:You're going to look gaunt just like anybody else would who lost too much weight too fast.
Speaker A:So the message is slow and steady wins the race.
Speaker A:Don't get carried away, be reasonable.
Speaker A:And if you want to keep your hair on your head, because this is another thing that happens that's gotten a lot of bad press lately is I use the GLP1 and I lost all the hair on my head.
Speaker A:Well, for the most part that's probably because you're not eating properly, your body is becoming deficient in something or your thyroid went into this not in good shape and it's on its knees now and it's thrown in the towel.
Speaker A:And so your hair, your skin, your nails, everything's going south.
Speaker A:So this goes back to where we started, where you really need to get a decent assessment of where are your systems at, what is what Systems are down right now and how can you support them.
Speaker A:And is it possible that you might need to shore up your defenses before you start using a GLP1?
Speaker A:Or if you decide with your practitioner that you can do both at the same time, so be it.
Speaker A:But you have to be aware and mindful that you're taking care of all the systems.
Speaker A:Otherwise you're sacrificing your long term health for short term gain and that doesn't serve anybody ever.
Speaker B:Hey there Orshi here with a quick message.
Speaker B:This is a brand new podcast and I would love your help with growing our community.
Speaker B:If you're finding this discussion valuable, I would be honored if you take a moment to leave a review and share this episode with a girlfriend or any woman in your life who might benefit from this information.
Speaker B:Your support truly makes a difference.
Speaker B:So thank you for helping me spread the word.
Speaker B:And now let's get back to our conversation.
Speaker B:Thank you for sharing your journey.
Speaker B:It's interesting actually also ventured into the My first venture into GLP1s was about three years ago and I started with Lyra Glutide, which is Victoza was a brand name and I have gotten on the bandwagon exactly for the same reason because I was just going into menopause and I was dealing with the same situation that you were and I got on it the first month I had lost a little bit of weight and then I completely plateaued on it.
Speaker B:So I had some good results the first month and then I continued taking it for maybe another four or five months and then I have lost zero weight on it and completely plateaued.
Speaker B:And I'm like, why am I doing this?
Speaker B:I'm not even getting any results.
Speaker B:And I stopped and I made all the mistakes using liraglutide and, and then I stopped and I actually gained not just the weight I lost, but I gained more weight back than I lost.
Speaker B:And I was like, this is stupid, I shouldn't be doing this.
Speaker B:This is not the right strategy.
Speaker B:Why did I even start this?
Speaker B:And I closed my mind to, okay, GLP1S is just not the right strategy.
Speaker B:Let's stick with nutrition, fitness and like the foundational things.
Speaker B:Obviously the newer peptides came out, more people were talking about them and I really became more educated on the nuance of how to use them properly.
Speaker B:All the things you mentioned, like the protein, the amino acids, the weightlifting and all the really optimizing the system realistically.
Speaker B:And when I got back on it the second time, I was using tirzepatide and I had fantastic, fantastic experience with it, just like you.
Speaker B:Within a very, very short period of time, I lost more than 17 pounds, more than 10% body fat, and at the same time, it was a matter of eight weeks.
Speaker B:I also, I lost more than 10% body fat and I added 3.8 pounds of lean muscle at the same time.
Speaker B:And I increased my hip thrust in the gym over 200 pounds during that period of time.
Speaker B:So the fact that like you have to lose muscle mass is not true if you have the right strategy.
Speaker B:You don't.
Speaker B:But I also want to caveat that I was also optimizing my hormones and a lot of other things at the same time.
Speaker B:And after this period of amazing kittens and rainbows and butterflies, I did manage to tank my system because I then went into some HP axis dysfunction and I completely stopped my progress and stalled for a while because I ended up with a complete flat line in both my cortisol and DHEA levels completely tanked and I, I had to get on a lot of almost do some reverse dieting a little bit.
Speaker B:I had to reduce, like I had to actually go down to the back down to the most smallest dose of using tirzepatide.
Speaker B:I had to do a lot of work on my rebuilding my HPA function and my adrenals.
Speaker B:So I was doing the bioregulators, the adrenal and the pineal.
Speaker B:I was taking glandulars, I was doing pregnelone, D G, A licorice root, a lot of different adrenal glandulars doing the mineral balancing.
Speaker B:I was doing HDMA testing, a lot of different testing to make sure I was getting my system back online.
Speaker B:And I also had to change my thyroid medication dosing to more like a circadian dosing of my T3 to reboot my adrenal.
Speaker B:So even though I had this like spectacular result with my GFE one and I was so happy because I was finally like getting closer to the body comp, I did manage to tank my system because when you pull on one lever again, very strong, it tends to push other parts of your body out of system.
Speaker B:And because I was so gung ho in my weightlifting and doing all this things, my allosthenic load on my body was just too much of being in a calorie deficit sit working out, doing all those things.
Speaker B:So I guess the point I'm trying to make is that there's so much nuance to the body and there's also, it's so easy to plateau on the GLP1s.
Speaker B:And the answer is not necessarily increasing the dose of your GLP1.
Speaker A:Now it's a sign to check in, right?
Speaker A:Are you maybe eating too little?
Speaker A:Could you eat a little bit more?
Speaker A:Are you not sleeping?
Speaker A:Is your stress, Are your stress markers off the charts?
Speaker A:Are you not getting outside?
Speaker A:Are you not moving your body?
Speaker A:Are you nutrient deficient?
Speaker A:Like all of those things will factor in.
Speaker A:And again, I think that these compounds get a bad rap because so many people are not using them well.
Speaker A:And in some cases you have physicians that are doing a beautiful job.
Speaker A:Like they've hired coaches, they're holding their clients hands, they're making sure that they're doing the right thing.
Speaker A:But very often you've got people just writing out a prescription and saying, okay, there you go.
Speaker A:Because the fact is that if you lose, if you have 40 pounds to lose and you need you lose 30 or 35 of them or 40 of them, your lipids will normalize.
Speaker A:Like a lot of the, the blood work might look better, but you might feel like hell.
Speaker B:So that, that was my situation too.
Speaker B:My, my cholesterol levels went down.
Speaker B:I have like genetically high cholesterol.
Speaker B:I've always had it my whole life.
Speaker B:But it did come down a little bit, even just after a month of.
Speaker B:So it does have so many other systemic good benefits.
Speaker B:But I still, my energy and a lot of other things was tanking with the, with overtaxing my system.
Speaker B:Let me ask you for people that are plateauing on the peptides let's talk about some sort of complementary adjunct, other peptides, therapies that people might want to consider.
Speaker B: , CGC: Speaker A:Yeah, so that's a good question.
Speaker A:I don't know that.
Speaker A:I don't think that the peptides necessarily are going to get you off your plateau.
Speaker A:But you mentioned a couple of interesting options here.
Speaker A:So BPC157 is more of a healing peptide.
Speaker A:So it's really powerful for healing pretty much anything in the body, whether it's a musculoskeletal issue, like tendons, ligaments, muscles, bones, wounds, burns.
Speaker A:It also is very, very beneficial for organs.
Speaker A:So it's protective to the pancreas, it's protective to the stomach, it heals the GI tract.
Speaker A:And so a lot of physicians will have their patients use BPC157 for at least intermittently while they're on the GLP1, just to kind of shore up defenses.
Speaker A: You mentioned CJC: Speaker A:And those two peptides are part of a category called growth hormone secretogy.
Speaker A:So these are peptides that stimulate your pituitary gland to produce and release more growth hormone.
Speaker A:And decreasing growth hormone is a massive issue as we age.
Speaker A:It also gets affected by the fact that if we're not sleeping, if you're not lifting heavy weights or moving your body, like all of these things are natural ways to boost growth hormone and kind of counter a little bit some of the aging aspects of growth hormone dropping.
Speaker A:But at the same time, for some people, these growth hormone secretagogues are an interesting angle to take, because when you use these compounds, what people have found is that it increases the burning of fat and it also promotes muscle, lean muscle.
Speaker A:It's not a magic wand.
Speaker A:I just want to say this, and I would divide the world into three groups.
Speaker A:There's a group of people who have an allergic response to it, like me, so just can't touch the stuff then.
Speaker A:And it's not a big group, but it's not an insignificant group.
Speaker B:What type of reaction would you see?
Speaker A:I get a histamine response.
Speaker B:Really?
Speaker B:From injection?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So right at the site.
Speaker A:At first I thought I'd been attacked by some bugs.
Speaker A:And then I realized that mysteriously, every one of those bug bites was at a point of injection and Then they grow.
Speaker A:As my immune system got angrier and angrier, the reaction became more and more increased until I literally had to stop.
Speaker A:So that is a possibility.
Speaker A:The second one is, the second group of people are high responders.
Speaker A:So these are people that start using these growth hormones to kogs and they come back a month later and they're like holy jumping.
Speaker A:I've totally leaned out.
Speaker A:I'm recovering from my workouts beautifully.
Speaker A:I sleep in really well.
Speaker A:They're just, they're fountains of gushiness of I can't believe this stuff.
Speaker A:A lot of them are men, some are women.
Speaker A:Again, you want to do all the right things here.
Speaker A:It's not a big solution.
Speaker A:The reason why also I'm a little more conservative on these is because I don't love seeing people using them all the time.
Speaker A:I think that they can be useful for an 8 to 12 week cycle but it's a good idea to step back for four to eight weeks in between and then go back at it.
Speaker A:Also if you're any kind of a competitive athlete, they're banned by WADA.
Speaker A:So we had BPC157 to support organs.
Speaker A:We had the CJC epamorellon which can be a really interesting solution.
Speaker A:There's a lot of physicians will ask will put their patients on these growth hormone secretags with the GLP1s as a way of amplifying results.
Speaker A:Sometimes you can use the growth hormone secretags when you're weaning off the GLP1 or there's some really interesting oral supplements around that might be helpful as well.
Speaker A:So there's a company called healthgevity and they have formula called Ignite Plus.
Speaker A:And then there's another really great supplement company.
Speaker A:Both these guys just do beautiful work.
Speaker A:The other supplement company is called Level Up Health and he has a stack like it's a.
Speaker A:It's in a single bottle.
Speaker A:He's the guy that does makes this ultimate GI repair that is just next level.
Speaker A:And so his is called Total Body Recomp.
Speaker A:Both of them feature a peptide called DNF10.
Speaker A:The thing with DNF10 is it mimics some but nowhere near as many of the GLP1 effects and but it will over time it will help to curb appetite.
Speaker A:It just takes a couple of months for most people.
Speaker A:So that's a supplement that I think can be used as you're coming off your GLP1 as a next level kind of support.
Speaker A:Healthgevity also has a supplement called Longevity and Longevity features a novel peptide that was discovered in Fava Beans by the company that Neurotas that does this kind of work.
Speaker A:And what I really like about longevity is that it promotes muscle.
Speaker A:And here's the thing, guys, anything you can do to increase muscle is going to make it easier for you to lose weight for all the reasons that we talked about.
Speaker A:Makes it easier for you to remain active.
Speaker A:Means you're going to be more insulin, you have more places to stash the extra glucose, like you can store energy and then use it.
Speaker A:So I really like longevity and I really like the total Body Recomp.
Speaker A:Those are two very, very great supplements.
Speaker A:There's another product on the market.
Speaker A:There's a 2.0 version coming up, but the 1.0 version is, is.
Speaker A:And we can put the link to this in the show notes if you want.
Speaker A:It's a serum called Vicetrim.
Speaker A:And Vicetrim is an herbal formula that is applied to the abdominal area and has been shown over 30 to 60 days to reduce abdominal fat.
Speaker A:And in doing so, it actually helps with blood lipids and all kinds of other things.
Speaker A:But it has that kind of spot reduction which we tell people, you can't just lose fat in your belly, you've got to lose fat all over.
Speaker A:But as it turns out, this stuff, it helps to focus, focus the energy on this one area.
Speaker A:And it.
Speaker A:So it has a primarily a fat burning effect and it has a secondary lean muscle effect.
Speaker A:Now there's a 2.0 formula.
Speaker A:I don't know when this episode's coming out, but if it's out by the time you release the episode, I'll send you the information for that.
Speaker A:And it's a similar idea except that it promotes muscle first and fat burning second and is actually even stronger than the Visa trim.
Speaker A:So both are really, really great products.
Speaker A:Both can be helpful either in conjunction with or following a GLP1 course.
Speaker A:And then on the bioregulator front, which you mentioned earlier, I really like doing, supporting people with the pancreas, the liver and even the stomach bioregulator.
Speaker A:Those are three bioregulators that can be really, really helpful just in as a protective mechanism, if you will.
Speaker A:The central nervous system bioregulator can be great.
Speaker A:The pineal gland bioregulator.
Speaker A:So, you know, depending on what the person's got going on, maybe we might need to look at the adrenal and the thyroid bioregulators.
Speaker A:We as practitioners, we're going to sit with the person and look at where are your weak links, where do we need to support you?
Speaker A:And then we're going to Bring in these different elements to help to support the body in doing the work.
Speaker B:Now before we run out of time, I want to make sure we touch on the next generation weight loss peptides.
Speaker B:There are certainly some new ones in under development like Reta Truchitide and there's a lot of other weird names that are hard to pronounce.
Speaker A:You know, I'll be honest with you, I'm not as well versed in those.
Speaker A:I know that a lot of people who hit the wall with the tirzepatide and semaglutide have good success with those.
Speaker A:What I'm seeing in my communities I think is a bit concerning.
Speaker A:I'm seeing people jump on those way before they're ready for market.
Speaker A:They haven't even been brought to market yet, the testing is not finished and what they're.
Speaker A:And I'm seeing like these concoctions of using 2, 3, 4, 4 different GLP1s at the same time.
Speaker A:And I, you know there's literally no data on that.
Speaker A:So at that point you can call yourself a pioneer, you can call yourself an astronaut heading out into space on your own.
Speaker A:The only thing I would say there is just be mindful that you get one body and it's not outside of the question that we will learn over time that there might be long term issues if you overuse, if you over push certain pathways.
Speaker A:So personally, and this is my personal decision, I'm not saying I'm right, I'm a little bit conserv.
Speaker A:I'm a bit more conservative on the other ones.
Speaker A:To me, if you can make one of these first two work for you, then it's going to be your best case scenario.
Speaker A:I think that if neither of those two are working, there's something else going on and you kind of need to get to the bottom of it.
Speaker A:So the one thing we didn't touch on that I think is very important to mention, and this is especially with semaglutide, is constipation.
Speaker A:And because of that slow gastric emptying, constipation can be a massive issue for people.
Speaker A:And we both know that a significant portion of the population is coming in constipated to begin with.
Speaker A:And you know, poop is, is like this, hehehe, you know, kind of taboo topic but it's majorly important.
Speaker A:And so if semaglutide causes you to be super constipated and you're not able to address it with using a lot of hydration and healthy fats and the right fiber supplements, it may not be the right compound for you because I can tell you that if you're not pooping regularly and you're down to once a week or once every two weeks, nothing good is going to happen.
Speaker A:Nothing.
Speaker A:You're going, you're heading for trouble.
Speaker B:And this is why I think addressing GI issues before even getting on GLP1s is so important because I think people don't realize that a lot of constipation, these issues are not that hard to fix in mineral balancing.
Speaker B:If we can see what the issues are.
Speaker B:These are actually very fixable things.
Speaker B:There's just a lot of deficiencies and imbalances that need to be corrected, but that can be fixed and it's not that difficult.
Speaker B:And it's better if you address it before you start.
Speaker A:Yeah, I mean it depends.
Speaker A:I as a person who's had a messed up microbiome from the day I started my life, it, I figured it out finally but it took a long time and my first obvious solution was magnesium.
Speaker A:But what really, really does it for me is some combination of tutka ox bile.
Speaker A:I use digestive enzymes and some and I do use from level up health.
Speaker A:I use his liver complex quite frequently because it has all these nutrients to support the detoxification pathways of the liver which is really important.
Speaker A:I think that don't sweep that one under the rug like work with someone and address it.
Speaker A:Tirzepatide, much less of an issue on that front.
Speaker A:So for some people that's the reason why they can't use semaglutide and they have to move to Tirzepatide and probably some of the newer generations maybe have even less of those issues.
Speaker A:And I'm not saying they're bad, I'm just saying right now they're not fully approved yet.
Speaker A:And unless you really need to go there, I would probably stick with the ones that we have that have been approved.
Speaker B:Yeah, 100% I completely agree with that.
Speaker B:I know that the one I mentioned was in development by Pfizer and they are already in trial.
Speaker B:So these big companies are already seeing good results.
Speaker B:But you're right, it's not commercially really available except in some of the more rogue peptide websites where, where you can source them.
Speaker B:But I think Tirzepatide is a fantastic GLP one that if you have access to that is an amazing place to start.
Speaker B:But I think just what's to come in the future.
Speaker B:These multi agonist peptides that are addressing like different metabolic pathways are going to be just, just even more powerful.
Speaker B:As they are coming out in the years to come.
Speaker B:And I think there's also some oral versions of these medications that are coming out on the market that just might open it up to a lot more people that are maybe hesitant to do injections.
Speaker A:Yeah, I mean, look, if you're getting the drugs from the manufacturers, they come with these, these pens that are self administered.
Speaker A:It could not be easier.
Speaker A:Truthfully, it's when you're getting from compounding pharmacies that you're getting into a whole different delivery mechanism.
Speaker A:So there's many different ways to go about this.
Speaker A:And I think if I had to leave some parting words, it's make sure that you're working with someone to assess where you're at before you begin, understand what issues are at play for you.
Speaker A:And then you can go into this with your eyes wide open and really going at it in a very holistic way so that you're most likely to get the most, the best, best results.
Speaker A:And don't be in a rush.
Speaker A:It didn't take you three months to get to where you are.
Speaker A:So the slower you go, the more likely you are to experience a set point reset in the brain.
Speaker A:And that's what we're after.
Speaker A:What we're after is for the hypothalamus to go, oh, my set point isn't £130 after all.
Speaker A:Actually, it's £120.
Speaker A:I forgot.
Speaker A:It's been so long since I've been there.
Speaker A:But you're not going to get there by slamming through this crazy protocol and forcing the weight off in three months.
Speaker A:You have to give the body time to get there and stay there and eventually get that set point to reset.
Speaker A:And which doesn't mean that you might not every once in a while have to do a little tune up.
Speaker B:I think it's so incredibly important what you said, and I think this is the pitfall that we fall into the optimizing biohacking crowd is that we want to throw everything at it.
Speaker B:I'm in that camp too, and I did throw everything at it.
Speaker B:And I'm like, you go at it like an Olympic event.
Speaker B:Like, I'm going to do everything.
Speaker B:When I did it, I also was like, oh my God, look at all that I accomplished in such a short period of time.
Speaker B:But that is not the goal.
Speaker B:Like, the slower the better.
Speaker B:And it's so hard mentally to accept that, that if you only lose a couple of pounds a month, that is awesome.
Speaker B:That is actually a great achievement as long as your body weight and body composition is heading in the right direction.
Speaker B:Take your time, because that set point that you mentioned is so important.
Speaker B:If you can gradually adjust that, then your ability to maintain your weight when you get off of it is going to be.
Speaker B:Your likelihood of success is so much higher.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And again, I know I keep saying the last thing, but you just said something really important here, and that is sometimes the scale doesn't move, but the tape does.
Speaker A:And what I mean by that is that you could be losing inches, especially if you're eating protein and you're working out really hard and you're nourishing your body properly.
Speaker A:If you are building muscle, the scale may not reflect that.
Speaker A:The scale may say you haven't lost a pound, and yet what you've lost is inches.
Speaker A:So you're in better shape, you look better in your swimsuit, but your actual weight is the same.
Speaker A:And this is why people like us like to talk about body composition instead of weight loss.
Speaker A:And I think people just remember that if you think you're plateauing and when you begin, whip out that tape measure, as much as you don't want to, just take it out when you're by yourself.
Speaker A:Take your waist, your thighs, your arms, your hips.
Speaker A:Write it on a piece of paper with the date, hide it somewhere if you need to, and then the next time you hit a plateau, go at it again and see what's going on on that front as well.
Speaker B:Yeah, a hundred percent.
Speaker B:Like, looking at body composition, I think we both have a background in the fitness world, and we see that so often, and the weight is almost irrelevant in many ways, unless you have so much.
Speaker B:I mean, some people have a lot of weight to lose, but when you're really working on body comp and changing the way you look and feel and your performance, it's really all about putting muscle on your body, which is so, so difficult to do, especially as we get older.
Speaker B:But it's.
Speaker A:It's the organ of longevity and it.
Speaker B:What makes you look good.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And able to enjoy your life.
Speaker B:So, Natalie, just as a last question, what are the.
Speaker B:Your top three tips for living an optimized life?
Speaker B:It doesn't have to necessarily do anything with GLP1s, but what are your top three tips?
Speaker A:Well, yeah, that's a good, good question.
Speaker A:Well, I think that it starts with the people around you.
Speaker A:You know, surround yourself with people who bring you joy, who support you, who celebrate you, and who you can support and bring joy to and celebrate.
Speaker A:So having a community around you, that is that you're in.
Speaker A:In your Incoherence with who bring out the best in you, I think, is a massive, massive piece of the puzzle.
Speaker A:And then the second one is as much as possible, try to do if you can steer your life towards things that really light you up.
Speaker A:And if it can't be your job because you've got bills to pay and your side hustle, you know, and your passion isn't the thing that will give you the ability to pay the bills right now.
Speaker A:Make it a hobby, make it a side hustle.
Speaker A:Like, you never know when your side hustle or your hobby can become your main gig.
Speaker A:And in the meantime, even if it never did, if it brings you joy, then that's a massive piece of the puzzle.
Speaker A:And then the third one, I don't know.
Speaker A:I think my.
Speaker A:The tagline that I used, and I probably still do to this day, is take care of your body.
Speaker A:It's the only place you have to live, is don't look at this as a chore or a job.
Speaker A:Think of taking care of your body as a gift.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:You've been given this beautiful gift, and I don't care how messed up you think your body is, it's a flipping miracle.
Speaker A:And the more we get on side with it and we celebrate it, I think the easier it will be for us to get what we want and what we need.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And start celebrating and appreciating it now, the way it looks right now.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because if we always waiting for the perfect, you know, when we look perfect on camera in our bathing suit, then it might not never happen, but you gotta love it now for sure.
Speaker A:And sometimes the people that look perfect are miserable, they're sick, they're not.
Speaker A:Well, this culture that we're evolving in, where everything has to be so perfect, it forgets, you know, we forget what happiness really is and what uniqueness of the human form is all about.
Speaker A:And I'm not endorsing walking around with an extra £50 at all.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I mean, look, everybody's journey is different.
Speaker A:I think we need to work towards being strong and healthy and have a healthy body composition.
Speaker A:And then when it comes down to the short strokes, then you have to think about how much do you need to give up to.
Speaker A:To get to that little fine detail.
Speaker A:And that's a personal decision.
Speaker B:Well, Natalie, you're amazing.
Speaker B:Can you tell us about your amazing podcast and all the ways we can find you?
Speaker A:Thank you so much, Orshi.
Speaker A:So the podcast is Longevity with Natalie Nidham, and you can find it on pretty much every major platform.
Speaker B:Thank you so much for tuning in.
Speaker B:This is Maya.
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Speaker B:Better conversations, better tools, and health strategies that are actually built for our physiology.
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Speaker B:The views expressed on this podcast are solely those of the speakers and do not reflect the host's opinions.
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Speaker B:Always consult a licensed healthcare provider.
Speaker A:Sam.
